Interminable
by Irulan 24
Summary: Ranma misbehaves yet again,and Akane gets fed up. She tries the think of a way out of the marriage. Might have pairings, RR this is my first story!
1. Default Chapter

Interminable

Chapter 1: The Never-Ending Debacle

Akane Tendo sat on the back porch of her home, listening to the soft breeze blowing through the sakura trees, and listening to the koi jumping in the pond across the yard. She stared at the grasses blowing softly in the wind, and leaned her head on her arms which were folded above her bent knees.

_Maybe...maybe it's me_ she thought to herself. _Maybe I really am a violent, uncute stupid tomboy. But that doesn't give him the right to act such a fool all the time. After all, I may have faults but I'm not to blame for his excess of rivals and suitors. I didn't ask them to follow him around, and I don't incite them into doing anything to him. I guess he's just a jerk, after all._

Unknown to Akane, someone was watching her musing to herself. Ryoga in P-Chan form stared at her slight frame, wondering why she was so pensive suddenly. After the incident in the kitchen, he would have expected her to be malleting everyone in sight to kingdom come. _I hope she's alright, _he thought. _This is all that stupid Ranma's doing. He always causes her trouble. He doesn't deserve her. Then again, he doesn't pretend to be her pet pig, either. I guess I don't deserve her, either. But still...how could he have ruined all her hard work so carelessly, like that?_

Earlier that afternoon, Akane and Ranma returned home from school to find a note from Kasumi on the kitchen counter. All of the household was gone, save them. Kasumi was shopping, Nabiki was extorting money from the Yakuza, Happosai was stealing the neighbors' underwear, and Soun and Genma were drinking sake in the bathhouse, and then trying to outrun the police when they got caught drunk in the bath. Ranma immediately headed for the dojo, throwing his books on the counter and rushing past Akane, who sat down to read the note in its entirety.

_Hm, _Akane thought. "Maybe I'll make a small snack for us to tide us over until everyone comes home and Kasumi makes dinner." She knew that Ranma wasn't very fond of her cooking, but she had improved an awful lot in the last few months. Pushing her short, bluish-black hair over her shoulder, Akane opened the cream-colored refrigerator and peered in. She decided to make a simple snack, miso soup, rice, and tea. Not too arduous an attempt, even for one of her meager skills.

Akane added water to the rice cooker, and while it heated, she pulled one of Kasumi's pink aprons out of the pantry ant placed it over her school uniform. Afterward, she washed her hands and pulled out miso paste, a small amount of seaweed, and tofu. She quickly measured out the paste and water, then placed them in a pot. After adding some rice to the cooker, she closed it and set about chopping up small pieces of tofu. She added that, plus the seaweed, and then heated up another pot of water for tea.

Standing on her tiptoes, Akane peered into the china cabinet and pulled out a tray, two bowls and two small teacups. Placing them and two sets of chopsticks on the tray, she tasted a small spoonful of the soup. "Not bad," she muttered out loud, "maybe I should put some curry powder and vanilla in it. Or, maybe not," she added as she thought a little harder. No sense in ruining a good thing.

"Bweeee!"

Akane looked down to see P-Chan sitting on the kitchen floor, looking up at her pleadingly. "Oh, hello P-Chan! Where have you been sweetie?" she asked, lifting P-Chan off of the floor and cuddling him to her chest. "You must be hungry. Here, have some rice." As Akane turned away to place rice in a small bowl for P-Chan, the pig's normally black skin turned slightly green, and he turned away to trot into the living room, but Akane returned before he could make his escape, and lifted him up into her arms. "Say aaaahh," she requested, lifting chopsticks with a few grains of rice to his mouth. P-Chan was forced to swallow, and when he did, to his surprise, he didn't keel over or die. In fact, the rice tasted....normal.

At that moment, Akane heard a hissing, and looked to the stove. "Oh! The tea is boiling!" she exclaimed, setting P-Chan down and walking over to the stove. P-Chan used this interruption to make his escape. Sure, the rice seemed fine, but that was no reason to take his chances where Akane's cooking was concerned. It could be completely toxic, but not appear so until hours later.

P-Chan ran outside to see Ranma exiting the dojo, rubbing his sweaty neck with a green towel. "Hey, Ryoga," Ranma greeted him. P-Chan growled in reply, then jumped and bit him on the arm. "Hey! Porkbutt!" Ranma shouted, then chased him across the yard. As P-Chan's small black form leapt off a rock by the koi pond, Ranma raced to follow, but tripped on Ryoga's backpack, which was sticking out of the pond.

**Splash!**

Ranma-chan sat up, angrily wiping her brilliant red hair out of her eyes. "I'm gonna get ya for that, porkbutt," she snarled. P-Chan was nowhere to be found. Well, actually, he was in Idaho, enjoying a lovely view of potatoes, but Ranma didn't know that.

"Ranma! Snacktime," called Akane, standing in the doorway to the backyard. Slowly, Ranma-chan stood up, picked up her discarded towel and proceeded to dry herself off- somewhat. Then she followed Akane inside.

"Hey, ugly tomboy. What kitchen appliances didja ruin this time?" inquired Ranma-chan cockily. "Nothing, baka," hissed Akane, shaking her fist at him. "I only made soup and rice, and I tasted it myself, it's fine."

"Somehow I doubt that," Ranma-chan told her. "Your "fine" cooking is just about as "fine" as your fat figure, and your slow, clumsy martial arts abilities. Besides, I'm not hungry, you can go poison somebody else." With that, Ranma turned to enter the living room, and began to walk, until he was distracted by something or someone crashing through the wall.

"Aiiyaaa! Shampoo here to give Airen too too good dumplings! Make shrimp shumai. Husband hungry?" Shampoo tossed her long, glossy purple locks behind her, and stuck out her chest, which was already threatening to burst out of her sorely over-worked Chinese silk shirt.

"Alright, thanks Shampoo! I'm starving!" Ranma-chan exclaimed. "And there's nothing to eat here." "Ranma!" Akane shouted at him. "I just made us a snack." Ranma rolled his eyes, then spared Akane a glance. "That's not food," he sneered.

Shampoo interrupted. "If Airen like, when finish dumpling, Shampoo take to Cat Café and give ramen special." She watched him eagerly, knowing what his reaction would be. "Sure!" was the enthusiastic reply, to which Shampoo firmly glomped him, while Akane stood in the background, crimson-faced, with steam coming out of her ears. One shoulder of her apron drooped, but she didn't notice as she stared at the two.

_I will not mallet them. I am not jealous. There is no reason to let them see that I'm angry...I mean, I'm not angry. It just means more miso for me, _Akane reasoned to herself with gritted teeth. "Uh, Shampoo, hehe," Ranma-chan put his hand behind his head, "can ya kinda get offa me?" He glanced fearfully at Akane, waiting for the mallet that never came. Shampoo let go long enough to grab Ranma-chan's arm, then pulled him out the hole in the wall, his red Chinese shirt fluttering behind him.

Akane glared after, then turned forlornly back to the amazingly, still-immaculate kitchen, and put one of the bowls and teacups away, when Ranma-chan came running back in. She looked up hopefully, but all he did was pour the teakettle over his head, then race back outside in male form, dumping the half-full teakettle on the floor, and spraying its contents all over the kitchen.

"BAKA!" Akane shouted after him.


	2. The Lives We Lead

Interminable

Chapter 2

The Lives We Lead

Akane cleaned up the spilled water, and replaced the kettle on the stove. Sighing, she sat down to eat her solitary snack. _You know, it's really not bad at all. I don't know why he had to be such an idiot about it._ She frowned grumpily, then turned when she heard a small scuffling sound. Behind her, P-Chan approached cautiously, concern evident in his little piggy eyes.

"Bweee?"

P-Chan looked at Akane hopefully, saddened on her behalf, and angry with Ranma- but he'd deal with that later, when he was back in human form. He rubbed his black head against Akane's ankle, and she reached down to pet him.

"Aww, are you worried, baby?" Akane looked at her pet lovingly. "I'm alright," she told him, though the lie was evident in the pain behind her brown eyes and the slight quiver of her lower lip, which she managed to keep in check. Standing up, she placed P-Chan on the chair she had just vacated, and walked to the sink to clean her dishes.

Drying her hands, Akane walked through the silent house to the front door, retrieved her brown bookbag, and walked up to her room. She changed silently into a pair of gray sweatpants and a form-fitting blue tank top, then seated herself at her teak desk to start her homework. It was Friday, so there wasn't too much, since they had 3 tests that afternoon. The teachers who had given them exams gave the students a one-day reprieve from homework in that subject.

Forty minutes later, Akane put down her pencil, and slipped her English paper into a folder. Closing her books, she placed them back into her bag and set it beside her desk. She stood and stretched, then stared out the window for a few minutes. It was relatively early, her journey home, subsequent fight with Ranma, and lonely snack and homework had only taken about an hour and a half total. She still had about half an hour or so until Kasumi came home, and she had no idea when the others were going to show up, nor did she care. It was not her concern what her mercenary sister did with her time, nor did she care to bail her histrionic father and annoying future father-in-law out of the local pen.

The sky was a soft powdery blue, broken in places by wispy white clouds that look like stretched out cotton balls. Akane watched them pass for a moment, then turned back to the pink interior of her room. Passing her bed, she reached for the dumbbells by her closet, and spent the next quarter hour lifting free weights, trying to tone her arms. "Sixty...sixty-one...ugh...sixty-two...I am not weak, Ranma-you-jerk! Sixty-three, sixty-four...you stupid baka, my arms are not flabby! Grrr....sixty-seven...wait...dammit! Oh well, I'll switch arms." And she proceeded to lift with her right hand, then finished and exited her room toward the bathroom to wash her face.

After cleaning up, Akane reappeared downstairs, and sat on the back porch. She drew her knees up to her chest, and supported her chin on them, wrapping her arms around her legs. P-Chan, who had been noticeably absent for a while, followed the sound of her movements to the porch, where he hesitantly stepped out. He had been trying to look for the bathroom, but ended up in the closet, the living room, under Nabiki's desk, in Ranma's underwear drawer- which had been a mortifying experience, to say the least, and then finally found himself back in the kitchen where he had started. He was rather disappointed to still be in pig form, he had hoped to change back into the fanged man, leave the house, and reappear as outside as Ryoga, to "chance" upon Akane, and comfort her. Mentally shrugging off how things never seemed to go his way, Ryoga watched Akane stare at the slightly purpling sky, then seated himself next to her, his piggy head resting on the side of her hip. Together, they watched the sun sink slightly in the sky to their right.

The front door creaked, and Akane broke her thoughts to turn towards the sound. She couldn't see who was in the main hall, and was about to call out when a voice pre-empted her.

"Hello, I'm home," Kasumi's soft voice floated through the air. Akane heard her take her shoes off, and then a gentle face bearing a sweet smile drifted into the kitchen, and towards the porch. "Good afternoon, Akane," Kasumi's nose crinkled slightly, as she smiled harder, thinking that she was glad to see her younger sister. "How was school today?"

"Um, it was okay, onee-chan," Akane replied hesitantly. She knew what the next question was going to be. And sure enough, "Where's Ranma?" was the next thing out of Kasumi's mouth. _Err, I don't want to tell her what happened. She'll just feel sorry for me, and then I'll be embarrassed. I don't want her to think I care about that idiot or anything. _

"He's um, helping the Amazons design new items for their menu," she told Kasumi. _There, that's not exactly a lie, _Akane rationalized to herself. She plucked a stray blue strand out of her eye, and smoothed her hair back.

"Oh, that's lovely. How nice of him to do so," replied Kasumi. She smiled again, beatifically, and then turned slightly toward the kitchen. "I bought some beef at the market, and some yummy vegetables. I was thinking of making teriyaki tonight. Would you like to help?"

Akane cringed, then shook her head. "Um, not tonight, thanks. I think I'm going to work out in the dojo for a few." "But you love cooking!" Kasumi exclaimed, a look of concern entering her light brown eyes. "And just think, wouldn't it be lovely if you helped make dinner for Ranma? You know, when you two are older, I won't be living here, and you'll have to cook for him, unless you want to eat frozen dinners for the rest of your life."

Akane couldn't bring herself to argue with her sister about the future. "I know, onee-chan, but, well, just for today, I think I'd like to skip cooking. I'll definitely set the table for you, okay?" "Well, alright," Kasumi replied. She walked toward the bathroom, and P-Chan followed, glad that he'd finally have a chance to turn back into Ryoga. He'd been in animal form for almost two days straight, and it was wearing on him. He waited outside the door to the bathroom, and when Kasumi stepped out, he scuttled in, past the main room and into the furo. Jumping into the large tub, he made a small splash, then displaced more water as his form changed into a naked boy.

_Now, where did I leave my extra clothes? _He mused. Climbing out, he reached behind the hamper and pulled out a copy of his usual black pants and yellow shirt. While pulling on his shirt, and then toweling his hair, he heard Akane come down the stairs and walk towards the back door.

In her yellow training gi, Akane trotted towards the dojo. She entered, and slid the almond-colored door closed behind her. Walking to the equipment closet, Akane reached in and pulled out a practice dummy, then placed it near the far wall. In the middle of the room, Akane stretched and followed some simple moves, followed by a few flips toward the far side of the dojo. Facing the practice dummy, Akane closed her eyes. She crossed her yellow arms over each other, then started some breathing practices. Opening her eyes, she slid into a basic stance. _My focus feels kind of off, _she thought to herself .

Straightening slightly, Akane began punching exercises, first hitting the left side of the dummy with her right hand, then the right side of the dummy with her left, then crossing over with each hand. She continued, oblivious to the added presence of a new individual.

Ryoga followed the rhythmic "thump-thump" of Akane's punches over to the dojo. He opened the door and stepped in, watching Akane practice. _She's actually pretty good. Much better than Ranma gives her credit for. When nobody is taunting her or making her angry, she has good control. And she's really got a lot of power, especially for a girl. _He winced slightly as the dummy shook with the force of one of her blows. _I'm sure glad that's not me, _he thought to himself.

Walking towards Akane, Ryoga tried to think of a way to approach her without scaring her, and thus saving himself a punch to the face. He decided the best way would be to simply enter her line of vision, so he walked to the wall that stood behind the dummy, then made his way over to Akane. At first, she was too caught up in her practice to notice, but after the dummy swayed a little to the left from a slightly off-center punch, Akane noticed a person behind it.

"Ryoga!" She exclaimed. A genuine smile lit up her face. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in almost a month. I got your letter last week about the literature workshop you were taking in Australia, I didn't expect you back here so soon."

He put his hand behind his head, and smiled sheepishly at her, dark hair hanging in one eye. "Well," he began, "the workshop only lasted a week, and after the last day, I left to go back to my hotel, and ended up in Okinawa. So I tried to go south, to get back, and somehow ended up back in Tokyo this morning. I kind of got here by accident."

Akane laughed, and Ryoga smiled internally at the lilting sound. "Hey, it's your birthday in a few days, isn't it?" She asked him. Ryoga nodded. "Why don't you stay here, we can have a little party!" Ryoga looked slightly uncomfortable, but inside he was rejoicing. _Yes, I get to be with my Akane for days! Oh happy day! _ Opening his mouth, he belied his inner joy, stating politely, "well, I wouldn't want to be a burden on you, or anything."

"Nonsense! You aren't a burden at all. You know you're always welcome here, Ryoga." Akane smiled at him, turning her head slightly to get a better look. _He's pretty cute...especially those fangs. _Just then, the dojo door slammed shut, and the two teens heard a stomp. Turning, Akane saw Ranma standing at the door, scowling at them. "Whatcha doin here, P-Chan?" he growled.

"Ranma, don't be a jerk. Ryoga's our guest for the next couple of days. We're going to have a birthday party for him." Ranma looked at her disdainfully. "I don't care about his stupid birthday. I didn't even know pigs had birthdays." Ryoga interrupted. "Ranma, prepare to die! I will fight you. But first," he turned back to Akane. "I can leave. I see that I'm causing trouble." Akane shook her head.

"Yeah, why don't you leave her alone, porkbutt. Nobody wants you here." Ranma smirked.

"BAKA!" Akane yelled at him. "He's more welcome here than you are!"

"Well if ya like him so much, why don'tcha marry him?!" Ranma taunted.

"Better that than marry a sex-changing pervert like you!" Akane screamed back.

_It never changes, _she thought. _No matter what happens, everything always comes back to this. _

"Yeah, well, you're an un-cute, sexless dummy and you'll never find a husband with your fat stomach and your poor excuse for cooking!" With that Ranma stuck his tongue out at her, then turned and exited the dojo.

Ryoga looked at Akane with sympathy on his face. _Poor Akane. Why does she take this from him? Why doesn't she just leave him? _Unbeknownst to him, Akane was having similar thoughts.

Staring forlornly at the door, Akane sighed. _It never ends. And to think, if they actually do make us marry each other, I'm going to get this for the rest of my life. How on Earth do I find a way out of this?_

A/N: Thanks for the review, Don't Eat Yellow Snow. I don't think this fic is appropriate for Akane to be a punk, but I am planning another fic in which she plays pranks on Ranma, so maybe I'll make her dress like that for an episode of that one.

Review!!!!!!!


	3. Artifice

Interminable

Chapter 3

Artifice

Akane sighed as she toweled off her body. She smeared her hand over the mirror, leaving a relatively clear spot in the steam-clouded surface. Shaking her head to dislodge the excess water, she ran a comb through her hair. Then she wrapped the ivory towel around herself, and headed upstairs to change clothes.

As she passed through the living room on her way to the stairs, she paused and looked at Ryoga, sitting quietly on the floor by the low table, sipping green tea out of a porcelain cup.

"It's all yours, Ryoga-kun."

Ryoga looked up, but Akane had already turned and was heading toward the stairs. He could see her towel-clad back, and her blue-black hair gleaming wetly under the lamps. _She's been so quiet these last few hours, _he thought. _That argument with Ranma must have hit her really hard. I wonder why he started in with her like that. He's an idiot, but even he doesn't rip into her that badly unless she's gotten him angry or flustered. _

Shrugging, though there was no one there to see it, Ryoga headed towards the bathroom, anticipating a long soak. He turned the sign on the door to occupied, then stepped inside the changing room.

Upstairs, Akane placed her towel carefully on the bed, then put on her underclothes and looked through her drawers for some clothing. It was late springtime, and the weather was unseasonably warm. She chose a yellow skirt that came down to her knees, and a powdery blue sleeveless top. Sitting on the pink bedspread, she leaned forward to place white socks on her small feet.

I don't understand why Ranma was being such a jerk before. Sure, Ryoga is his biggest rival, but he's also a friend, and Ranma has more honor than to kick someone out to spend his birthday alone. I guess he must just have been angry at me, and used Ryoga as an easy outlet. Why does he hate me so? It's not like I'm one of those mindless fools following him around to get married. I don't want this anymore than he does. But how on earth can I find a way out of it?

As she sat thinking, a stripe of amber sunlight shifted and illuminated the right side of her face. Half in light, half in shadow, she seemed otherworldly as she contemplated her unenviable position- well, perhaps not completely unenviable. Certainly there was no lack of people vying to become engaged to Ranma. Only those people didn't have to deal with the teasing, the tormenting, the endless insults, the defensive behavior, the thoughtless actions....the list could continue on indefinitely.

A voice rang through the halls from the area just outside the kitchen. "Dinner's ready, everyone!" Kasumi's sweet voice enticed the household to gather around the table. Akane exited her room, and followed Nabiki down the stairs. The fathers were already there, drinking tea and waiting to be served. Ryoga stepped into the room, and the scent of his freshly washed hair wafted over to her.

_He smells really good, _Akane noticed. She looked at him, and he smiled shyly at her. She found herself overcome by an inexplicable feeling of guilt. There was no good reason for this feeling to come over her, but she couldn't shake the sentiment that she was betraying someone.

_But whom?_

She shrugged it off as Ryoga sat down beside her. On her other side a breeze flapped her skirt hem slightly, and she turned to find Ranma sitting next to her. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and when he was sure Kasumi and the parents were not looking, he stuck his tongue out at her, then returned his eyes to his plate.

Ryoga, however, had caught the one-sided exchange, and watched Akane's face slowly turn several shades of red. However, she said nothing, and her face returned to its normal hue a few minutes later.

Dinner commenced without incident, and when it was finished, Akane helped Kasumi clear the dishes while the rest of the household went back to their own activities. Ranma and Ryoga remained in the main room, and when Akane returned, she found Ranma reading a comic book, lying on his stomach next to the wall, and Ryoga was sitting by the table. He had his large pack out, and pulled out a long black object, which he placed carefully on the table. He replaced his bag on the floor, then wiped off the top of the object with his hand, as if to clear dust from it.

Upon closer inspection, Akane noticed that it was an electronic keyboard. "Would you mind terribly if I played some music?" Ryoga asked her. She looked over at him, slightly startled, and was surprised by the intimidated look in his liquid brown eyes. "Of course not. I would love to hear you play," she replied quietly.

He depressed some buttons on the top of the keyboard, to set the tone of the instrument- he told her that it could imitate the sounds of various instruments, then began to key out a haunting melody. When she inquired as to the name, he told her it was a German song named "Fur Elise." This he followed with the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's ninth symphony. Akane found herself humming along with the tune. Ranma looked up from his comic with an annoyed expression on his face, but said nothing. A moment later he returned to his reading.

"Can you play another genre?" Akane asked him. "I like Western Classical music, but I also like rock and other types of modern music. I don't know how much experience you have, though." Ryoga smiled at her. "It's no problem at all. I've played the keyboard for years, I can play anything you like."

With this, he began to play, and Akane noticed a sort of background instrument to his song- it sounded almost like he was playing a fiddle. She jumped slightly, startled, when Ryoga began to sing.

"Across the fields 

_I fight for my meals._

_I get my back into my living..._

_I don't need to fight_

_To PROVE I'm right._

_I don't need to be forgiven" _

He sang in perfect, unaccented English. The melody flowed over Akane, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the song and the moment, which was rudely interrupted by Ranma during the final, frenzied refrain.

"What is this crap?" He yelled, standing right over Ryoga's head. Turning to Akane and pointing an accusing finger at her, he stated, "It sounds like that awful American junk you listen to."

"It's not American," Ryoga told him. "It's British," Akane added. Ranma crossed his arms over his red Chinese shirt, looking disgruntled. "Well, whatever it is, it sucks. Besides, American and British are the same thing anyway. Who the hell sings that song?"

"The Who."

"Who?"

"Yes, The Who."

"No, I mean, who sings it?"

"For goodness sake, you idiot, the band that sings the song is called THE WHO!" Akane thundered at him. "How stupid can you be? And another thing, American and British stuff are not the same, their countries are on different continents!"

"So what?" Ranma glared at her. "It's the same thing. All Westerners are the same. They're stupid and useless, and they have no honor."

"That's a very uneducated and bigoted thing to say, Ranma," Ryoga interjected. "I have studied at numerous Western Universities, as well as some large Eastern ones, and I have to tell you, there are a lot of cultured and intelligent people around there."

"You went to University?" Akane asked Ryoga, turning her head so her blue hair shone brighter. "I thought you didn't go to school at all."

"Well," Ryoga looked at her sheepishly. "From being lost so much, I found myself in many countries, and some of the ones I stayed in for a while, well, I worked and audited classes at universities. I learned music from the Russian Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, where I also studied Dostoyevsky. I learned the history of martial arts at a major University in Beijing. I studied art and law at Oxford University in London. But I performed most of my studies in the United States. I was recruited by a psychology professor at an Ivy League college to participate in a study, and I was paid for it. It was a case study, so I worked for months with the professor and one of his grad students. While I was there, I attended all sorts of classes."

"How were you able to stay there without getting lost?" Akane interrupted.

"Oh, well, you see the whole place is on a mountainside, and surrounded by these gorges, so if I turned in the wrong direction, I'd end up on the edge of a gorge. I didn't want to fall in, so I'd turn around, and eventually get to where I was going. Also, they had this huge clocktower on the top of the hill, which everyone could see no matter where they were, so I could orient myself by that."

"That's so cool," Akane was very impressed. Her blue eyebrows lifted, and she nodded her head, then picked lint off of her skirt. "How many languages do you speak?" she asked him. "Um, let's see, Japanese, English, Mandarin, Spanish, French, some German, a little Russian, and Cambodian. I studied the languages everywhere I went, and I made sure that I picked up books, too, so I could keep in practice when I was on the road. There's not an awful lot else to do when you're lost and training by yourself."

"Well, smart-guy," Ranma said, smirking at Ryoga. "What are you going to do with all your knowledge, especially since you can't even graduate high school?"

"Actually, I'm going to take an equivalency test to get my diploma, and then take the college entrance exams. It shouldn't be a problem, because the stuff I've encountered at the western universities is a lot harder than even the stuff on the entrance exams, so I shouldn't have much of a problem. I want to get into Edo University, and study, then eventually teach the history of martial arts, and its introduction to the Western world and ultimate effects on mainstream and popular culture."

"Ryoga-kun, you could come to school with us!" Akane exclaimed. "While you study for your exams, I am sure you could stay with us and attend our classes. Right, Ranma?"

"Hmph." Akane frowned.

"Why would he want to go to school with an ugly, fat, stupid tomboy like you?" Ranma asked. "BAKA!!" Akane shouted, and chased him around the living room. "You're so worthless. You can't cook, I hate the way you look, you're hips are huge, you probably would have weak children. No man would want you, or even want to go to school with you." Akane caught him, and grabbed him in a choke hold.

Just then, the fathers walked in, and leaped for joy, thinking that Akane was trying to hug Ranma. "Oh happy day, we will have heirs. The schools will be joined. Break out the sake!" They danced a happy little jig, Genma doing an admirable job considering he was in panda form. Signs flashed above his whirling head. "Way to go, boy," one stated.

"NO!" Akane shouted at them. She punched Ranma, and then ran up to her room. "I hate him! I'll never marry him!" she screamed down the stairs.

"You will if you want the dojo," her father called up.

Akane reappeared in the doorway, then made her way to the top of the stairs. "Fine," she spat through clenched teeth, looking down at her father a few feet below her. "Have it your way."

Soun smiled, happy that she was agreeing so easily.

"If that's the way you want it, then I renounce my claim on the dojo. I am no longer a student of the Tendo Dojo of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. The marriage and the schools are no longer my responsibility. If you still try to force me, I will renounce the Tendo name completely and move out. Understood?"

Shell-shocked, Soun stared at his daughter, then began weeping, soaking the floor below him and his own long black hair, which got in his way as he hung his head. "My terrible little girl! What have I done to deserve this! I have given you so much! A home, the dojo, someone to call husband." He blubbered on.

Genma cut in. "That's just foolish. Where would you go? You are a girl, and weak. There is no way you could make it on your own if you left. Who would take care of you? Who could you stay with?" He leaned back, smiling smugly. There was no way out if it, now. She had to marry Ranma and join the schools, or she would be homeless.

"Akane can stay with me."

All eyes turned to Ryoga, who stood defiantly in the center of the room. "I have lived on my own for a long time. I can help Akane if she chooses to leave. And if she doesn't want to live on the road, she can help me find my house in the next district. Then we can stay there."

Ranma simply stared at Akane, completely aghast. The look of anguish on his face was unmistakable. _Have...have I pushed her too far? _He continued to stare at her unyielding face, rooted to the spot. _She really doesn't want to marry me. She'll give up her whole life just to get away from me. _He swallowed thickly. It felt like he had a pinecone stuck in his throat.

Meanwhile, Akane stood at the top of the stairs, shocked to silence. She looked down at the boys, the parents, and her two sisters, who had wandered in before her pronouncement. _There's no going back. _

A/N

Ok, I know I'm making Ryoga out to be a too-good to be true Renaissance man. But this is just the surface. He's going to have much better one on one interplay with Akane, and his shy and slightly demented nature will be more evident. The P-Chan thing is something I haven't dealt with yet, but suggestions in that department are always welcome. Ranma, of course, isn't going to be as bad as he's made out to be right now, either, and we will see his motivations as the story progresses. Remember, this is mostly from Akane's viewpoint, so we're not seeing much more than she does.

ShadowbakaSama- Your ideas are good, but I'm not sure if I'm going to have Kuno be a suitor or one of the other characters. Ranma's still not entirely out of the picture yet, just out of her good graces. I'm not against them ending up together, I just want to prove that she can be her own person without having to rely on Ranma to make her grow up and "see the light." I may introduce some new girl characters for Ranma to increase drama, because frankly, his fiancées annoy the hell out of me.

Cherry Blossom9, Fizzleup, and Don't Eat Yellow Snow- thanks for the reviews and support. You guys are great. I promise I'll update more often.


	4. Author's Note

Hi People

I'm not continuing this story anymore, because I have no idea what to do with it (and it sucks). If anyone wants to continue it for me, leave a review w. your email and I'll get back to you on it.

Ciao


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